CODESRIA Policy Briefs: International Justice, Reconciliation and Peace in Africa

Charles Chernor Jalloh*

Number of visits: 1739

IN the context of continuing gross human rights abuses and challenges to peaceand security in Africa, international criminal justice has become a subject of much debate in terms of its contributions to ending impunity and contributing to more secure and peaceful societies on the continent. The African Union’s move to create an African court with criminal jurisdiction at its June 2014 Malabo Summit highlightssome of the frustrations that many have had with the International Criminal Court, which has not always lived up to the high hopes many invested in it at its birth. This policy brief captures and builds on deliberations during a three-day conference in Dakar, Senegal in July 2014 that was organized by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa and the Social Science Research Council. It proffers concrete policy recommendations to the AU, to regional economic communities and to states with the hope of contributing to the fashioning of justice structures and processes that seek to end impunity while contributing to the goals of peace, security and reconciliation in Africa.